A Ganja Cultivation Project in Jamaica Will Allow Small Farmers to Benefit from the Industry

Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness says an Alternative Development Programme (ADP), which will provide an avenue for small ganja farmers to benefit from the ganja industry, will start by March.

The programme aims to prevent and eliminate the illicit cultivation of ganja and channel the process through legal streams. The pilot, which will commence in Accompong in the southwestern parish of St. Elizabeth and Orange Hill in Westmoreland in the south of the island, will involve the farming of ganja to provide raw material for processors.

According to the Jamaica Observer, Holness was quoted saying, “It is a real fear that as ganja industry emerges to become more corporatized, that the original ganja man, the original farmer, could very well be left out of the gains and the benefits, when you were the ones singing the praises and the benefits from how long.”

He added that this programme is of significant importance to ensure that small farmers, and, in fact, communities like Accompong, where there is certain discipline, a certain order, a certain social system that will ensure that it is not used in illicit ways, will benefit.”